BOYS HOCKEY: Marshfield earns Div. 1 South title shot against Hingham

The Rams jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead in Sunday’s semifinals and went on to beat top-seeded Archbishop Williams 5-1 at Gallo Arena. Marshfield will return to the rink Tuesday to meet No. 2 Hingham in the final.

Marshfield High boys hockey coach Dan Connolly can’t help but respect his team’s upcoming opponent in the Division 1 South Sectional final.

That would be Hingham, which clobbered the Rams 10-1 in the regular-season finale on Feb. 22.

“They’re a great club,” Connolly said. “They’re here for a reason.”

So is Marshfield, as it proved with its 5-1 victory Sunday over top-seeded Archbishop Williams in the semifinals at Gallo Arena.

The fifth-seeded Rams (19-6) lurched out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and sealed the deal with a gutty finish that made Connolly confident his team has “a great shot” at the South title.

Marshfield and No. 2 Hingham (16-8-2) will play here on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

“They’re on a nice little roll,” Connolly said of his team. “We beat a great Xaverian team (2-1 in overtime in the quarterfinals) and a great Archies team today. So we’ll rest up (Monday) and come back on Tuesday and play hard.”

Senior Jimmy Connors and juniors Liam Manning and Matt Burchill did the damage for Marshfield in the first. The Rams outshot Williams 13-4 in the period. The Bishops (13-6-4) finally got on the board when senior Jake Romano took advantage of Marshfield’s brief lapse in effort and scored five minutes into the second.

“If you’re up 3-0, you think it’s already over, but they’re not going to give up,” said Marshfield senior captain Mike Carbone. “There’s 45 minutes in every game. After the first period, you know you’ve got a half-hour left. So you’ve got to keep playing your hardest no matter what.”

Carbone added one more insurance goal at 5:29 in the third, assisted by junior Matt Burchill.

“I was just planted in the slot waiting for it,” said Carbone (team-high 11 goals). “I was hollering his name and he just picked his head up and hit me. That was just perfect.”

Marshfield will have to keep up its pace – even ramp it up – to impose its South title aspirations on a Hingham squad that averaged 6.33 goals in its first three tournament games.

“We’ve just got to play, for the most part, the way we played today defensively,” said Connolly. “That’s the thing: try to shut down their first line, second line, third line. I mean, they have four lines that can score. They’re a very good club.”